Review: Josh Groban in the round pleases his fans in 360 degrees

AUBURN HILLS — Josh Groban has a voice that belongs in an opera house, and a self-deprecating personality made for nightclubs.

On Wednesday night, Oct. 23, at The Palace he combined both for the kind of pleasant and personable night his fans have come to expect during the 12 years since he began recording.

The hook this time was that Groban was performing in the round, deftly navigating a 360-degree stage for a small but exuberantly supportive Palace crowd overwhelmingly comprising fans who had clearly seen him before — and probably more than once. Sporting a dark sports coat and white T-shirt and sneakers, Groban played easily to that familiarity, too, pushing what could be stuffy parameters of his brand of classic/pop hybrid without getting too close to the edges of taste or tolerance, amiably spoofing Pure Michigan tourism ads and cracking jokes about Big Beaver Road and a woman sitting in row DD — "I'm really 14 at heart. I'm sorry," he quipped.

The onetime Interlochen Center for the Arts student also staged a short Q&A with fans and came up with a couple of winners.

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When one asked if he'd ever consider singing with Kid Rock, Groban delivered a sonorian snippet of "Bawitdaba." And he was "upstaged" by a 5-year-old mini-me named Joseph who Groban brought on stage to duet on a bit of "You Raise Me Up."

Between songs, Groban also talked about some of his career highs, including his appearance on the series finale of TV's "Ally McBeal" and his Find Your Light Foundation, which on Wednesday gave money to Detroit's Mosaic Youth Theatre.

All of that complemented but, of course, did not eclipse the real star of the show — Groban's rich voice, which could even turn Detroit Pistons lineup announcements into a musical experience, and his performance of 15 songs over the course of the show's 100 minutes.

He opened with "Brave" from his latest album, "All That Echoes," with members of his eight-piece band positioned on lower level staircases before coming to the stage, and worked the perimeter during "False Alarms" before sitting at a grand piano to play "February Song." Classical pieces such as "Un Alma Mas," "Alla Luce," "Sincera" and "Voce" mingled with more pop-oriented fare such as covers of Don McLean's "Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)" and Jimmy Webb's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress," and Groban took over the timbales kit during an instrumental segment that included Aerosmith's "Dream On."

Groban's treatment of the Celtic traditional "She Moved Through the Fair" was a standout, as were duets with opening act Judith Hill during "Remember When It Rained" and "The Prayer." And he was joined by a choir from Alma College for show-closing renditions of Stevie Wonder's "I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever" and "You Raise Me Up." It was Groban as his fans like and expect him, with the in-the-round setup providing just enough of a fresh twist on the familiar proceedings.